Spoils of War - Catching Up

Right, so I've a) missed a few comics and b) missed most news since the beginning of the year due to two modems breaking one after the other. So, I've got catching up to do.
Remember the Secret Invasion playing cards? The thing where they identified every card with a superhero important to Secret Invasion? Thy did four once a week on CBR. They're doing a similar thing with War of Kings, Except this time its chess pieces. So far we have:
White King - Black Bolt
White Queen - Medusa
Black King - Vulcan
Black Queen - Deathbird

I expect Ronan, Triton, Crystal, Karnak and Gorgon to appear on the white side, and Gladiator to appear on the black side. I'm not sure what they'll do with the Guardians and former Guardians, the Starjammers, Nova and Darkhawk.

Its an interesting and cool idea, as long as we remember that this has nothing to do with the Hellfire Club. Or cult. Or whatever it is these days. Oh, and by the way, it seems that Black Bolt has conquered the Kree. I missed that somewhere. Probably SI: Inhumans. But it seems to be quite a pleasant conquest, Black Bolt regarding the Kree as distant family, and them regarding him with the respect due a great warrior.It seems that Young X-Men is now cancelled - it ends with issue #12. This is not surprising. YXM was strangely handled. I'm sure having Donald Pierce posing as Cyclops to pit the Young X-Men against the New Mutants seemed like a good idea at the time, bit it didn't work. People accused the writer of writing Cyclops badly, when he was actually writing Donald Pierce posing as Cyclops quite well, but nobody knew it. The whole 'someone will die!' plot probably would have worked if Kyle and Yost hadn't already been killing New X-Men with wanton abandon. It may even have worked if the mutant that was killed had been Anole, Rockslide or Dust (or here's an idea - Cannonball) instead of….Wolfcub. People certainly would have been upset, but probably upset in a way that made them buy the book. Instead everyone lost interest, including me, sales dropped, and now its cancelled.

Except, rumour has it that a New Mutants series is in the work. Leading me to suggest that Young X-Men hasn't actually been cancelled. I have the feeling that the stories that were going to be told in #13 onwards will now be told in New Mutants #1 onwards. Natrually the stories will be somewhat adjusted, but essentially the same. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I think it’s a good idea - they are giving the series a second chance at a start under a name guaranteed to sell a few copies. Now they just have to make sure the stories are good, and work in context with stuff going on around them.
And then there is something called Timestorm. I have a strange relationship with the 2099 line. When I was younger, I watched a Black Panther TV series that took place in the future. I can't remember if it was called Black Panther 2099, but that's basically what it was. I had never heard of the Panther before this, so I will always think of this hero of a dystopian future as the original Panther, meaning I think of the one that hangs around with Storm in the present day as low-tech copy of the original Panther. I know its weird, but that’s the way it is. I doubt I'll get Timestorm, though, as I doubt it will be anything like the TV series.Psylocke is returning to the X-Men soon, at least that's what Sword of the Braddocks seems to indicate. This makes me happy. I like Psylocke. She has a psi-sword. Its cool. Its like Pixie's souldagger. Yeah, I know they come from completely different sources, but lets face it, they're both sharp things that get pulled out of the air, and mess with magic or mental abilities (which are often similar).

Spoils of War - Better Late than Never

Cover to X-Men: Kingbreaker #2.

I know I had said that I would post a review on the new DotA - it's all typed up, but I forgot to post it. Rudi at the comics shop is trying to convince me to start playing the WoW TCG with him and some other guys, so I spent the evening looking at cards and it completly slipped my mind. I'll put it up tommorrow. But for now....

Well, I was right about Ink not being a mutant. However, the reveal of where his powers come from is...interesting. I hope they play this well, and we don't need another House of M to stop a whole slew of Inks. I'll keep watching this book as it seems to be on its way to becoming good. A late starter if there ever was one.

I don't feel so bad about not buying Worlds Apart any more, as it doesn't seem to be the advertised product so far. But I'll watch it too to see where it goes.

I am becoming increasinglyconvinced that Dark Reign is going to set up an X-Men vs Avengers summer crossover event. Read this interview with X-editor Nick Lowe and see if you agree. I was hoping that they were going to make War of Kings the big summer crossover, pushing the galactic books like Guardians and Nova firmly into the spotlight - but it seems WoK will be a 'secondary' event, like both Annihilations.

Thor's gonna jump from issue #12 to issue #600, like Avengers jumped to #500 before it was cancelled. It seems to me that they're trying to get the best of both worlds - launching a series with issue #1 and then jumping to a high anniverary issue, which, by the way, will cost you $5, less one cent. On the other hand, there will be an all-new story by Stan Lee in it. That might be worth $5.

Amazing Spider-Girl cancelled? Seems that One More Day didn't push up its sales after all.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm leaning towards building a Decon Markus Hallow deck, so I can play healer in raids (I like playing that role) but switch to shadow burn stuff if I need to in solo games - and also make use of the ally-cost-reducing abilities human heroes have access to.

Spoils of War Xtra - Mighty Avengers Lineup?

Joe Q revealed these pencils of a 'secret project' on Cup of Joe (click to enlarge). It looks like it will become a triptych cover for a team book. Thing is, one of the characters on it is J, who we know is going to be a member of the Dan Slott-penned Mighty Avengers. Slott also told us that it would have some really classic Avengers in it, one of them a founder, plus at least one character from the Initiative. I see the Scarlet Witch, Vision, Iron Man, the Hulk and Hercules, all classic Avengers characters. Its only pencils, so it could possibly be War Machine instead of Iron Man. Then there's a bald guy who could possibly be Luke Cage, but I don't see Bendis giving him to Slott, so its probably Ares. Ares and Herc on the same team? That would be...interesting. I think the last two are G. I. Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady) and Stature. You can't just have one person with pym particles on an Avengers team, you gotta have two so they can do the smallest of all team-ups. Vision, Stature and the Witch on the same team? That would also be...interesting.

If this is the lineup of MA, I'm gonna seriously consider getting it. Fortunately its going on a break in December, as I'm buying too much stuff already that month. Dan Slott starts on it in January, so I have a bit longer to decide.

I'll have reviews of Uncanny, X-factor and Solomon Kane up later today, then Togs of War tomorrow, and a new monthly feature on DotA called Under Siege on Monday.

Spoils of War - I Am Offended

In his WordBalloon interview, Jeph Loeb said he will be reuniting the original four defender in Hulk. Yes, those four defenders. I'm not sure how that's possible. Dr Strange had his powers and title stripped from him, the Silver Surfer is heralding for Galactus, and Namor is supposed to be a villain at the moment. They'll team up with Hulk to fight the Offenders, consisting of Rulk (apparently that’s what we're calling him) and three other villain who's names look vaguely familiar (Tigershark, Baron Mordo and Terrax). I'm a Defenders fan and I'm cringing already.

There is a way to do the story without them actually teaming up. They are, after all, the Defenders. Rulk could put his team together, only to have Hulk appear to take him down, the Surfer show up with orders from Galactus to capture Terrax, whilst Strange is after Mordo for some mystical reason and Namor is tracking his old nemesis Tigershark. They each take down their man, look at each other briefly, and leave. The thing is, I just don't see Surfer and Namor taking time off to help Hulk. They have bigger issues at stake. But maybe its best not to try and understand this comic. After all, Thor did show up spouting Shakespere.

On the flipside, Namor's upcoming battle with Hercules in Incredible Hercules promises to be good, especially with Greg Pak's hints about an appearance by Poisidon.

According to Lying in the Gutters, the cover solicited by Dynamic Forces for Dark Reign is the evil illuminati image. Just as I thought. The only difference is that the eclipse appears red instead of bluish. I have to decide before the end of the month - do I order Dark Reign or not? I haven't been getting Avengers or Secret Invasion, and I don't care one iota about Doom, Loki or the Hood. I do, however, care about Namor and Emma Frost. I don't mind Namor as a bad guy, but the Emma thing has me worried. I just hope its some sort of powerplay by her to protect the X-Men (like Scott's secret X-Force) that the writers have come up with as a way to put the X-Men and Avengers at odds with each other. If it is I want to read about it. If Emma's leaving the X-Men and going evil again - well, I think that's a really bad idea and don't want to read about it. And I'm already getting too many books in December.

I got an email to say that X-Factor #34 is waiting for me. But, still no #33. So what do I do? Read it, or wait?

Spoils of War - It is Your Destiny

I mentioned in my review of Messiah Complex that I think the name was selected because of Mystique's connection to Destiny. Then we have her cryptic comment about Iceman's melting point, and Mike Carey's assurance that he will be doing something to Iceman's powers. We need to get a bit scientific here and decide what Iceman's ice powers actually are. Remember that there's no such thing as 'cold', cold is the absence of heat. In order to create ice, you need to suck the heat out of it and put it somewhere else. So does he have control over water, or over heat? I'm tending towards the former due to the images of Iceman merging with a river and emerging from it downstream. Giving Iceman control over water would be awesome. I'm thinking of Rictor's powers, which connected him to the earth so he could feel it as an extension of his own body and manipulate it. If Bobby could do that with water…well, he definitely would deserve his Omega-level status. On the other hand, they might go the route of giving him heat powers alongside his cold powers. While probably more scientific, we already have fire-manipulators like the Human Torch and Magma and it doesn't seem as exciting. So I hope they give him water powers.

How accurate have my Young X-Men predictions been?

Wolf Cub dies. Check.
Anole joins the team. Check.
Sunspot and Moonstar are to train them. Check.
Greymalkin is an ancestor of Charles Xaviar.

Wait, what? Ok, so I got that one wrong. I had thought he was a resurrection of Prodigy, brought back to life by something that happened during the Sentinel's attack on the mansion. I didn't see this coming. How long has the mansion been in Xavier's family anyway? Are his ancestors buried in the ground too?

As to which member is not a mutant, I'm still hoping its Ink cause I don't like how people seem to think being a mutant means you can give them any power you can think of, even if it doesn't makes sense. I think Guggenhiem's trying to make us think the non-mutant is Dust, who is keeping some sort of secret from the team. And now that Moonstar is a confirmed member, the hints we were given that the aftermath of X-Infernus will affect this book makes me even more certain she's going to get mystical powers.

Nezhno will play a significant role in Storm: Wolds Apart. Darn. I should have ordered it. Maybe I'll get the trade.

Jeff Parker has confirmed that the Agents of Atlas are directly involved with Dark Reign. Jeff Parker's name is also on Dark Reign: New Nation, so its possible that’s where they'll be popping up there. Maybe a story with Namor and Namorita? Hmm.

Paul Cornell answered questions on Captain Britain and the MI:13 whilst managing to give absolutely nothing away. Darn. He did say Union Jack would have more appearences in the series, but I think we knew that already. He also said he liked Psylocke and Meggan, but refused to reveal if they would appear.

I'm not quite sure how the Amazons are attacking Atlantis, but as Namor and Namorita will be in the arc, I'll probably get the trade of Love & War. All my other Namor stuff is in trades. I'm interested that Poseidon's name came up in an interview, where it was noted that he was the god of Atlantis. At least, he was its god before it was sunk, all the homo sapiens drowned, and homo mermanus moved in and claimed it as their capital city.

I haven't read any reviews today yet, but I'm interested in the New Avengers issue which deals with the Skrull's involvement in House of M. I do remember now that Spider-Woman was the only one who tried to convince the heroes not to attack Magneto and try to put the world back the way it was. Damn you Brian Bendis, it was so obvious. I'm kicking myself for not noticing before.

Spoils of War - Darkness between the Stars

Bendis on Dark Reign:
'…it's not an event. Dark Reign is not another event I'm writing. It's like the Initiative label that a lot of books had after Civil War, which announced it was about this part of the Marvel Universe. That's what Dark Reign is going to be. So I want to make that very clear.'

I have a theory about Dark Reign. I believe that it is the reign of Dr. Doom. In fact, I believe that the 'evil illuminati' picture we saw a while back, with the dark eclipse in the background, is the cover of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign. We've already seen Doom make alliances with Namor and Loki. I think Doom is in custody at the moment, but during the chaos of SI, one of Namor's sleeper cells could easily break him out. And while the superheroes struggle to cope with the aftermath of the invasion, especially if a prominent superhero dies, Doom can make moves to solidify his power even more with an alliance with the Hood and whoever else that is. These people could exert an incredible behind-the scenes hold over the world. Taking over the world publicly is so old-school villain - why not take over the world secretly? If the superheroes don't know you rule it, they can't come after you.


Dark Reign: New Nation looks like it will be one of these anthology books that the X-Men department seem to like. It has six writers and three artists. But what is the new nation? Well, each of the characters in Doom's alliance has control over a 'nation' - Doom has Latveria, Namor has the worldwide sleeper cells, Loki's been manipulating Asgard, whilst the Hood builds a kingpin-like empire in New York, and Frost co-leads the X-Men (or if its another White Queen, the Hellfire Club).

Secret Invasion: Requeim (not its actual title) sounds like a Fallen Son-esque mini-series in which people react to the death of a major superhero. Take your pick. Iron Man is the odds on favourite, one of his books was cancelled, and his other book is classified till after SI. The Wasp is a possibility. She's a founding Avenger, and Pym seems to think she's the Skrull's ace card. What exactly was in that formula he gave her? There's also Ms Marvel - leader of the Mighty Avengers and poster-girl of the Initiative. Her death would be a major blow - and her book is also classified till after Secret Invasion. Note the absence of Mighty Avengers, which wasn't being cancelled. Mr Fantastic is an option too - we have no idea what the FF will look like after Miller's run and FF: Cosmic Sized is classified. The only others who's death would warrant a miniseries are Cap and Thor - both of whom have already died in major events. And they've only just returned. Thor's book is missing - but it's been late before.

I'm confused about FF: Cosmic Sized. Its $5, so it looks like the usual oversized annual rather than a tie-in to Dark Reign or War of Kings, so unless it involves someone's death, I don't know why they're keeping it under wraps. Equally strange is She-Hulk: Cosmic Collision. Where did that come from? Are Marvel testing the waters for a Lady Liberators series?

I forgot to mention Nova's solicitation yesterday, which confirms the return of the Nova Corps. Interesting move with War of Kings around the corner. Seriously guys, policing earth = bad idea. Didn't we just repel an invasion by an alien race who was merely trying to help us? You think we're gonna let the Nova Corps tell us what to do? (You may notice I'm assuming we win SI)

We also know where the Kree stand now - down but not out. Joe Pokaski says:
"Ronan has been rebuilding the Kree Empire slowly but surely since the Annihilation, specifically in terms of military strength," the writer explains. "But the Kree serve the Inhumans' particular needs in this aspect by flexing a strength they have always had in spades: Their intelligence, and their technology. That capacity plus Karnak's ability to harness it could mean the answers they are looking for."

This also goes a long way to explaining Black Bolt's involvement in War of Kings. Now we need an image of Ronan and Black Bolt shaking hands. That would be awesome.

Is Warren Angel and Archangel? X-Force seemed to indicate he was both, with the unconscious ability to switch between forms. Uncanny #500 hinted he may be able to consciously switch forms, as he inexplicably took out a Sentinel off-panel. But people who have read SI: X-Men seem to think that they are separate individuals. Could he have changed off-panel? Curiouser and curiouser .

And lastly, I promised I'd talk about the MDCU exclusive comics. They won't all be movie tie-ins - it sounds like they're going to use this to experiment with a number of new concepts. New being relative - they mentioned westerns, which they've done before, but not for a while. Also mentioned sci-fi, I assume this means sci-fi without superheroes. They also mentioned spotlights of major characters which sounds Marvel Knight-y to me. So it seems like there won't be any important in-continuity books exclusive to MDCU yet.

Spoils of War - We Live in Dark Times

Biggest X-Men news this week is that Giuseppe Camuncoli will be drawing X Infernus. I don't know much about him, but his work on Ms Marvel looks really good. As do his character sketchesfor X Infernus (seen in this post). So I guess this confirms Pixie will be meeting Darkchylde again. Maybe she can get some payback. Mike Carey confirmed that Sunspot has in fact left the Hellfire Club, opening the way for a power struggle over control of the club. This is not good for the X-Men, no matter who ends up in control. Oh, X-Men Noir? Yeah, they've been hyping it up with the mysterious pictures for a while, but honestly I'm not that impressed. I already get X-Factor. The Daredevil and Spider-Man Noir books seem more interesting.
Speaking of Spidey, everyone seems to be enjoying his current storyarc, New Ways to Die. The name seems ironic to me, because its actually about the return of old Spidey villains, rather than the new ones. One can argue about whether Anti-Venom is a new or old villain, but his emergence has elevated Mr Negative to a new level of interesting. Mr Negative always struck me as the only one of the new crop who had much staying power. By the way, Dan Slott has confirmed that the phrase 'everything we did is still up and running' does not refer to Mephisto. I've never been much of a Spidey fan anyway - but I'm excited about the possibility of the Lizard being in the Spider-Man 4 movie.

I was pretty certain Mighty Avengers was going to be cancelled after Secret Invasion, and Newsarama confirmed my suspicions - only to quickly apologise and clarify that although Brian Bendis is leaving the book, its not being cancelled. There's still gonna be a new (fourth!) avengers book, Dark Avengers, which will tie into Dark Reign. Dark Reign itself appears to be one of these aftermath 'events' which are not really crossovers and not really events, but rather a label slapped on a whole lot of books that says 'in this book the Marvel Universe has changed, just like we said it would'. We've seen them before: Decimation, the Initiative Divided We Stand. I'm not saying they're a bad thing, just that you don't need to go out and buy every single one of them. I'm sure this Dark stuff has been in the works for a while, but its still interesting in light of DC's comments about making their movies darker. Seems everyone likes their heroes dark and their villains darker.

And why on earth does Doom have the Infinity Gauntlet? And what does it have to do with the Eternals? I have no idea, but it is interesting that he's granted asylum to Namor, who knows who has each gem, and that Namor and Doom are both in the 'evil illuminati' picture. Oh, also keep in mind that Magneto and the High Evolutionary have been messing around with the Dreaming Celestial, who is linked to the Eternals, and happens to be in San Francisco. Yeah, ok, maybe I'm paranoid. But I still think it would be cool if Doom, Magneto and Namor started a Dark Avengers team to protect the earth from god-like beings, however unlikely it is.

If any of you are getting fed up with the Marvel universe - now's your chance. Abandon ship and jump on board Mark Millar's Ultimate Avengers which will be the core of a five-book (no more, no less) Ultimate Universe. Plus, they'll have two Big Events every year, with the Ultimate Avengers series taking the place of an event mini-series. The Marvel U only has one Big Event every year. You only have to buy five books every month, and you're guaranteed to have all the tie ins. Plus, they're aiming for all of the Ultimate titles to do batter than every other Marvel title every month. It sounds too good to be true.

Military Intelligence - Guessing Games

I'm playing the guessing game today. So if you think I might guess something right and spoil a storyline, don't read this. But I never was much good at guessing.

C. B. Cebulski said that he could circumvent the ban on depowered mutants regaining their powers during X-Infernus - over the years there's a few X-characters that have had mystical powers, and he hinted that one of these might get their mystical powers back during the magical event. But who? He's not saying, but I have some ideas. I doubt any depowered witches will be showing up for X-Infernus, but I might put money on a certain former valkyrie showing up…

My sister is studying ancient civilizations, and we've been talking about the Egyptian Gods. I told her a few days ago that I thought Sekhmet, the lioness goddess of vengeance would make a good Marvel character. And whadda you know, in October Thor visits Egypt and duels the Egyptian Gods in Thor: Truth of History. I'm not sure how I missed seeing this in previews. He also meets something familiar that doesn't belong, and sets in motion a chain of events that affects the present day. What could this be? My first thought would be Apocalypse, but if it is I'd think they'd have publicized it more. As in having an article on Marvel.com titled: THOR FIGHTS APOCALYPSE!!!!!!!!! The Dreaming Celestial maybe?

Newsarama has an interview with Marc Guggenheim on Young X-Men. He says that the team would move to San Francisco, as they have realised that if you were once an X-Man, you can't just lie low, people will come after you. Scott and Emma don't know what to do with them until two of the New Mutants offer to train the youngsters. I'm going for Sunspot and Moonstar due to a comment I read somewhere on Marvel.com mentioning the moon and the sun. Which in turn makes me think that this book will be involved in an X-Infernus crossover. Who is Greymalkin? I think that he's Cypher. Or an amalgam of Cypher with some other dead students. If so, it will make a lot of people really happy, or really angry. One of the mutants is gonna discover they aren't a mutant. I'm not entirely sure what a golem-controlling psychic entity actually is, but I'm sure Rockslide still counts as a mutant. I'm guessing Ink will find out he isn't a mutant. A fan-favorite member of the New X-Men will join the team. I'm pretty certain it'll be Anole. They are purposely putting all the characters I don't like (Dust, Blindfold, Rockslide, Anole) in Young X-Men, and leaving the ones I do (Surge, Hellion, Mercury, Gentle, Loa) wandering around who knows where. At least Pixie's in Uncanny, and Mercury might be in X Infernus. I won't be picking it up yet, but I'll keep an eye on it, and if good things happen to it during or after X-Infernus, I'll probably pick it up.

Military Intelligence - Fan Expo

So lessee...what news did the Fan Expo weekend bring us? Well, first is Chris Yost's X-Men: Kingbreaker, the next chapter in the struggle between Vulcan and the X-jammers (apparently that's what they're called now) and a lead-in to War of Kings. It will be about Vulcan, now firmly entrenched as the leader of the Shi'ar, doing what Shi'ar do best and expanding his empire, whilst spending time torturing his brother, because he is insane. This will also apparently be new-reader-friendly, of which I'm glad cause I don't have Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire or Emperor Vulcan. If War of Kings is sparked by Vulcan's expansionist policies brining him into conflict with the Inhumans, it leads to all sorts of speculation - are the Inhumans still on the moon, or have they claimed somewhere else as their home? Will War of Kings involve Earth? Is this another invasion? Would it be better if the Skrulls took over Earth, as they'd probably stand a better chance of standing up to a Shi'ar invasion fleet than us?

The first thing I thought when I saw the announcement for Hulk Family was 'Hulk and Thundra have a daughter?' My second was 'Who on earth is Thundra?' I did have a vague recollection of someone by that name appearing in a one-shot called Hulk: Raging Thunder. Once again I found that Wikipedia is your friend, and that she's from a distant future in which the Earth is ruled by women, and that the one-shot explains the existence of the daughter. I don't feel bad about not knowing about characters from strange alternate futures. I'm considering getting this book for the Scorpion story though, in which Amadeus Cho apparently uncovers evidence showing that Scorpion is in fact a member of the Hulk's family. I've been intrigued by her ever since she popped up in the middle of Doc Samson's miniseries. While it would be cool if it was revealed that she's Bruce Banner's daughter, we would be getting to the stage of asking 'Just how many kids does Banner have?' I'd like her to be Doc Samson's daughter, but just because I think a 'Doc Samson and the Spectacular Scorpion' series would be awesome.

DC revealed that there is not one, but two weekly series in the works to follow Trinity. I'm not sure whether that means they're gonna have two weekly series going at the same time, or if they're just planning really far ahead.

Geoff Johns and Ethan van Sciver 's The Flash: Rebirth starts in January. It will establish the returning Barry Allen as the 'King of the Flashes', as well as defining a purpose for each of the four Flashes. Hmm, with all the good stuff I've heard about Johns, this looks tempting.